Time to Make Haste
by Digeediva
Summary: When time is of the essence, something will always go wrong. This fic was written for the Angst vs Schmoop Challenge for the numb3rswriteoff at Livejournal.


Notes: I would like to thank my beta elysium1996 for making sure this thing made sense. Ely, girl, you are AWESOME! This fic was written for the Angst vs Schmoop Challenge for the numb3rswriteoff at Livejournal.

Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs. They belong to Cheryl and Nick.

Charlie was finishing up with his freshman differential calculus class when his phone rang. Taking the phone out of his pocket, he looked at the caller ID and answered it. He had told all of his classes two weeks ago that their class may be cut short and that he would be leaving at a moments notice. He and his beautiful wife Amita were expecting their first child. Charlie and Amita decided that she wouldn't teach summer semester as she was already close enough to her due date at the end of spring semester. There was no point teaching a class when she wasn't going to finish it. Besides, she was looking forward to spending time with her new baby.

As soon as Charlie heard the sound of her voice, he suddenly thought back to what happened earlier today. Amita started having contractions very early this morning. When they called her OB/GYN, Dr. Cary LeJeune, contractions were about twenty minutes apart and her doctor told them she was in early labor, that they had plenty of time and to call back when they were five minutes apart. Charlie wasn't too happy about that, but Amita calmed him down and said that everything was fine. Amita lain back down on their bed whileCharlie was gently rubbing her belly. He felt his baby move and bent down to give her a gentle kiss on her lips. He was in heaven.

Some time later, after another contraction, Charlie insisted that Amita tried to get some more sleep. He knew that getting as much rest as she can now was going to help her later, once active labor started. He decided to lay down next to her, placing sweet kisses on her forehead. Looking at the clock on the nightstand, it was still too early to head to CalSci, so Charlie decided to make breakfast in bed for Amita. He had been pampering her ever since he found out he was going to be a daddy. But today was special, today he was going to welcome his child into the world and wanted to do anything and everything for her. To make Amita feel special.

He quietly went down to the kitchen and put the kettle on to make her favorite tea, chamomile. While waiting for the water to boil, he went out to the backyard and cut what he thought was the perfect rosebud. He stood there for a moment, looked at the rosebud and thought 'just like Amita, perfect.' After setting it in a crystal bud vase, he set about to make the rest of her breakfast, scramble eggs, tomato wedges, olives and some toast and jam. As he entered the bedroom, he saw Amita was having another contraction. Putting the try down, he was at her side rubbing her back and neck, silently wishing the pain away. With it over, he brought the tray up to her and together they shared breakfast.

Looking over at the clock again, he noticed it was getting late. So did Amita.

"Charlie, it's getting late. You have office hours in an hour," she said quietly.

"I don't need to go in today. I'll call in, cancel my office hours and class."

"Charlie, you heard what Dr. LeJeune said, it'll be hours before I even get to five minutes apart. More than enough time for you to have office hours, teach your class and get back home. Besides, Alan is here. I won't be alone. Go on. Get ready," Amita said as she was lightly pushing Charlie off of the bed.

Taking one last look to see if she would change her mind, he got off of the bed and headed into the bathroom to shower. Once dried and dressed he asked her again if she was sure about him going to school; she was. So with that, knowing that his dad was there with her, Charlie went to school to have morning office hours and teach his afternoon class.

The whole morning rushed through his head in a matter if seconds. He shook his head as if to bring himself back to the present. He listened to what Amita was saying and was eternally grateful he had only one class today.

His class was looking at him with huge grins on their faces. They started whispering among themselves. Chuckles started to carry throughout the lecture hall. As it turned out, it wasn't about the class that they were whispering, is was about the 'Baby Pool' this class set up. In fact, all three of his classes had 'Baby Pools' running. As of right now, the class was trying to figure out how many people had picked today in the pool. Time would determine the winner later.

"Are you sure, Sweetheart? Your doctor said to call at five minutes," Charlie said quietly.

"Charlie, the contractions are at five minutes, so yes, I'm sure! It's time." Amita said. Charlie could almost see Amita roll her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Sweetie. I didn't mean to imply that you weren't. Is Dad home?"

"Alan's not here right now. He went to get some bagels for me. But, don't worry. Don's here. He stopped by to see how 'junior' was doing today."

"Put Don on for a minute, please?" After a brief silence, "Don, Amita's bag is upstairs by the door. Can you get it? Oh, and can you get her laptop too? It's in the garage, on my desk. Oh, and call Dad and let him know you're taking Amita to the hospital. I should call Dr. LeJeune and let her know you're on you're way. And, ah ... Don ... ah ... thanks, Bro." Charlie was speaking so rapidly that Don couldn't get a word in edge wise.

"Don't worry Chuck, I got it covered. Lights and sirens all the way. You just get yourself to the hospital in one piece, I'll take care of the rest," Don told his soon to be 'new dad' brother.

With that Charlie hung up, dismissed his class, shoved all his stuff into his bag and ran of to his parking spot.

The hospital wasn't that far from school, but it still required some drive time to get there. Charlie's only thought right now was to get to the hospital and be with Amita. He was cruising at a good clip; actually he didn't know how fast he was going. Traffic was on his side for a change. He heard the sound of a siren, then looked in his rear view mirror. At first, what he saw didn't click. Then it dawned on him, a light bar attached to a Pasadena Police cruiser. Seeing that, he pulled of to the side hoping the cop would just pass him and then he can get going again. That didn't happen. Charlie stopped, the cruiser stopped and a cop was slowly making his way to Charlie's car.

"License and registration, please," the officer said in a rather bored tone.

"Officer, I need to get to the hospital. My wife … she's in labor … she having our baby now … she's in labor, I need to be there with her," Charlie stammered.

"Sir, license and registration now, please," the office repeated, this time a bit more irritated.

Charlie took out his wallet and handed the officer his license, then opened the glovebox to get the registration. With license and registration in hand, the officer went back to his cruiser to run a check.

Charlie just grumbled to himself. "I really need to get going. Amita's going to kill me if I don't get there soon. Why today? Why now? What the hell is taking him so long? How hard is it to call in the plates? Oh, just hurry up already." Nervous energy took over, tapping the steering wheel, checking his watch, looking at the rear view mirror, back to his watch again and tapping the steering wheel. He did that several times without even realizing it. He was starting to act like Don before a raid.

Finally the officer returned.

"Sir, I need you to get out of the car, now!" the officer ordered.

It was then Charlie noticed the cop had his service weapon out and pointed at him. Charlie got out, slowly. Having dealt with law enforcement for as long as he had, he knew not to make any sudden moves and to just do what the officer wanted. Before he even knew what was happening, Charlie was cuffed, Mirandized and stuffed into the back of the cruiser.

"Uh … Officer, what's going on?" Charlie asked. This was definitely not what he was expecting.

"Mr. Eppes, there is a bench warrant out for your arrest. You can call your attorney once you're processed."

"What are you talking about? I haven't done anything wrong! There must be some kind of mistake," Charlie said with more than a little anger in his voice.

"Mr. Eppes … ."

"It's 'Doctor,' by the way! I didn't spend all my time and energy getting multiple doctorates just to be called 'mister'.

"Very well 'Doctor' Eppes. Apparently, you never appeared on front of the court for a traffic violation and the judge issued a warrant. If you have a problem with that, have your attorney take it up with the Judge," the officer snapped back.

Once processed, Charlie made a call to Robin thinking Don might not be available, as he was helping Amita.

"Robin, It's Charlie, I need your help …," and Charlie started to explain what was going on.

Five and a half hours later, Charlie was brought out of holding and saw Robin waiting there for him. The arresting officer had his belonging in a bag and handed it to him.

"Charlie, it's all set. You're free to go. You just need to sign the release form for your stuff and we'll get out of here," Robin said, looking more than a bit worn out.

Several phone calls and a little bit of running around got the situation handled. As it turned out, Robin found out that the whole thing was a clerical error. It went back to Charlie's last speeding ticket. The one were he lost his license. Who ever handled the recording of the records for that case marked the defendant, Charlie, as 'not present' instead of 'present'. With that error, Charlie's name was flagged and a warrant for his arrest was issued quite sometime after the incident. Robin explained that since he hadn't done anything wrong, at least on the municipal level, until now, he was under the radar. The Police really didn't try too hard to find people who had bench warrants, just not enough man power to bother with. If they stopped someone and it was found that there was a bench warrant, then the arrest was made.

Robin was driving Charlie to the hospital; his car was currently in impound; that would be taken care of later. The more they talked, the more grateful Charlie was that Don was engaged to Robin. If it wasn't for Robin, and the fact that she was a friend of the municipal judge that had originally issued the bench warrant, Charlie would still be in jail. As it stands, he was now six hours late and silently praying that Amita had not given birth yet. He was never going to hear the end of this. Not even with his dying breath. Don would make sure of that, he was certain.

Traffic was on Robin's side, since she was driving, and by default Charlie's. They finally made it to the hospital. Robin dropped Charlie off at the front door figuring he would want to be at Amita's side as soon as possible. The parking garage was a ways off and having a panicky father next to her while she was trying to find a parking spot was not what she called fun. Having parked, she went in to look for the rest of her soon to be family.

"I'm looking for Amita Ramanujan. She was brought in earlier today. She's in labor; she having my baby," Charlie blurted to the attendant at the desk.

"I'm sorry Sir, there is no one by that name listed," was the reply back.

"What! No, that can't be right! Do you have the spelling correct?" Charlie was now pacing, trying to think.

"Miss, try Amita Eppes," Robin offered, as she walked up to the information desk.

"Ah, there she is, Labor and Delivery. Down the hall, first elevator bank, third floor. Room 315."

"Thank you." Charlie said. Then he turned to Robin, "Thank you as well."

Charlie was running toward the elevator back saying 'I hope I'm not too late' over and over again. His heart was breaking, knowing that he wasn't there for Amita. Hitting the call button, his own theory about elevators was thrown out the window. He kept tapping his foot, hitting the call button, it just couldn't get there quickly enough for him.

Once on the third floor, he noticed the floor was set up in fourths, so he looked around for the nursing station that covered Room 315. As he got closer to it, he found the whole floor very inviting. Walls were painted in soft pastel green. What a change from the bright stark white of the rest of the hospital. The nursing station didn't even look like a nursing station. Charlie was trying the find the words in his thoughts as to what it was, but couldn't, it just seemed open and friendly. Charlie ran up to the nurse and asked where Amita's room was. The nurse pointed to the room Amita was in and Charlie took off like a bullet.

Amita's room looked more like a bedroom than a hospital room. It had real furniture in there, comfortable chairs, a couch, a dresser, silk arrangements on the dresser, a flat screen TV that was on a stand instead of a little box they call a TV hanging from the ceiling. The hospital believed in making the mother and her family as comfortable as possible since most deliveries took a long time. Even the bed didn't look like a hospital bed. It was extra wide and looked more like a bed from home. It still had all the functionality of a regular hospital bed, but you'd never now it by its looks.

Charlie stood at the door for a moment to take it all in, forgetting for a second why he was here. A loud shrieking cry from Amita brought him back to earth and running to be at Amita's side. Don was right next to Amita, holding her hand, telling her she was doing great and that it would be over soon. Amita, on the other hand, seemed set to make sure Don was never able to use his shooting hand again.

Charlie nudged Don in the arm to let him know he was there, finally.

"Charlie, where the hell have you been! She's been begging for you for hours!" Don was shouting at him.

"Don, it wasn't my fault. Really. I … ," Charlie started to ramble.

"Don, just let him be. I'll explain everything. Let's go outside and give them some alone time," Robin said quietly from over by the door, slowly walking in.

Don glared at Charlie as he moved over and let daddy take over.

"Dad's down in the cafeteria. You have a lot of explaining to do to him too. That is, if Amita doesn't kill you first," Don told him as Robin was pulling him away from Amita.

Charlie moved over to take Amita's hand in one of his, with the other he started mopping her brow. He bent down to whisper into her ear. Letting her know that he was finally here. He told her that right now she couldn't be any more beautiful to him. Tears started to well up in his eyes. This was the most miraculous moment in his life, and he was thanking God that he was able to be here now.

As he was whispering in Amita's ear, Dr, LeJeune was giving Amita one final check.

"Amita, your there honey. You're fully dilated and 100% effaced. On the next contraction, I want you to bear down as hard as you can. It's show time!" Dr. LeJeune was beaming.

The contraction hit, Amita screamed and started pushing as hard as she can. Charlie was behind her supporting her, telling her to push. With each contraction, more and more the baby appeared.

"Okay, Amita, one last push," Dr. LeJeune said.

"I can't, no more, no more," Amita panted. She was at the end of her rope. She used up what was left of her energy. There was nothing left to give.

"Sweetheart, I know you can do it. Just one last push. That's all, that's all we're asking for. Just one more push. Please," Charlie's voice was cracking with emotion.

The last contraction hit, Amita pushed, finding the energy for just one more. Charlie was behind her, helping her push. The only thing that could be heard was the final, exhausted out cry from Amita, giving it all that she got.

There was a brief moment of silence. Then, coming from the foot of the bed, was a high pitched wail. It was the sound of a baby crying. It was their baby.

"Hey, Daddy. Do you want to cut the cord?" Dr. Lejeune asked.

Dr. LeJeune looked absolutely giddy when she saw the look on the Charlie's face. Holding the baby carefully, she move a bit out of the way to let Charlie in. A nurse handed him a pair of scissors and indicated to cut between the two clamps. With a snip, it was done. The baby was now on it's own. He handed the scissors back, looked at the doctor.

"Congratulations Daddy. It's a girl," and with that the doctor gave Charlie his brand new daughter.

He looked down at this little life that was in his arms. Still bloody, still crying, but to Charlie, she was the most beautiful child he had ever seen. As he was looking at her, a nurse quietly came up next to him to clean off her face a bit. Once done, he lifted the little baby to his lips and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. He was so full of emotion that the tears were the only way to express them.

Another nurse came up to Charlie and silently motioned for him to hand the baby over so that the nurse can clean her up. With one more kiss, Charlie handed the baby over and walked over to Amita's side. He sat down on the edge of the bed, gently wrapped his arms around her and gave her a gentle, but passionate kiss. He then took a washcloth that was on side table by the bed and started to wipe her brow. It was at that moment he realized what a strong woman she was. He always knew she was an intelligent, strong woman, but this was a strength he had never seen before. He became truly in awe of her. There was no measure of the love he felt for her.

"Sweetheart, Lover, she's beautiful. She looks just like you. Amita, thank you … thank you." Charlie was crying as he said that, placing sweet kisses into her hair.

"Daddy, you why don't you show off your daughter while we finish taking care Mommy here," a nurse said, as she handed Charlie his now cleaned daughter.

Softly, Charlie got off of the bed and held out his arms. His daughter was placed in his arms and slowly made his way to the door to look for the rest of his family. He didn't have to look very hard as they were standing over at the nurse's station, waiting for the newest addition to their family.

"Hey everyone," Charlie whispered.

They all looked up and Alan was the first to rush over. He was at Charlie's side with his arms out before Charlie could even get the introductions out. But, Charlie wasn't ready to give her up just yet. Introductions do need to be made first.

Grandpa, Uncle Don, Aunt Robin, I want you to meet Rebecca Marie Eppes. Becca, this is your Grandpa Alan. Here you go, Dad," Charlie handed the little bundle to Alan.

"She's beautiful, Charlie," Alan said, as he bent down to kiss his granddaughter. Alan was on cloud nine. "Hello, Becca, I'm your Grandpa."

"She's gorgeous, Chuck. Good job there, Buddy, Oh, by the way Buddy, Robin told us what happened. Only you could get arrested for doing nothing wrong. And on the way for your kids' birth at that, " Don commented. He was going to milk it for all it was worth. For a very, very long time.

"Simply beautiful, Charlie. How's Amita doing?" Robin asked.

"Dr. LeJeune is examining her now. She might be done by now, though. I think it's time I take little Becca back to Mommy. I'm sure she a bit hungry," Charlie said, as he tried to pry Becca out of Grandpa's arms.

Looking over at Amita, he noticed that the doctor was done examining her and felt it was safe enough to come back in. He strolled over to the bed and gently gave the baby over to her mommy. With baby in Amita's arms, he bent down to give her a heated kissed. A tired kiss was returned. After the kiss, Amita adjusted her position and placed Becca on her breast so that the baby could start feeding.

"I love you. You did great, Mommy. You did great."

"I love you too, Charlie. So tell me, where were you,"

"Ah … it's a long story," Charlie said, looking extremely embarrassed.

"I think we have all the time in the world now. Start talking," Amita ordered.

After giving her the whole ridiculous story, Amita started laughing. Knowing he was now forgiven, he nudged as close to the bed as he could. Laying his head down on the bed, so that it was touching both Amita and the baby, he started to hum a lullaby.

They certainly had a story to tell Becca once she was older.

Life was good.


End file.
